


breathing, indiscreet

by renaissance



Series: R/S 24-Hour Challenge [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Espionage, First War with Voldemort, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 23:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16074095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/pseuds/renaissance
Summary: Death row musings from the treetops.





	breathing, indiscreet

**Author's Note:**

> for wildflame's r/s 24-hour challenge prompt: "the camaraderie of a shared doom" + the following words: September, leaves, bark, cast, fawn, sausage casserole. i hadn't written any fic in ages before this, so it was a great way to flex my muscles. i had a lot of fun with it!
> 
> title sort of lifted from the national's "cherry tree" because every time i think of spyfic i think of cherry tree. spoilers: i'm usually thinking of spyfic.

They were in the forest. It was night and they were in the forest, under cover of low mist and tall trees, clouds obscuring leaves obscuring moonlight. They were in the forest at the top of a tree. Not the top—close. On a branch sturdy enough that they wouldn’t fall. Up a tree sturdy enough that the wind wouldn’t waver it.

Below, a party of hounds. The Muggles hunted foxes in red coats and if it got late they had flashlights. They rode horses and they criss-crossed the land like it was comfortably theirs to patrol. Property rife for trespass. Purebloods wouldn’t stoop to wearing red. They had their wands out with _Lumos_ and they walked on foot. The land was theirs, and they had spells to detect trespass.

“Well we weren’t to know that,” Sirius hissed. “The last time I came here, I was, fuck, I was a child, Remus. D’you think they let me on the hunt after I was sorted out of the fold?”

Remus didn’t look at him, because if he looked, he’d lose his balance, and if he lost his balance, he might fall. “You’d know better than anyone else in the Order.”

“ _Better_ is not watertight.”

“It’s the best we had.”

“It’s the Lestranges. They’re unpredictable. They could’ve put the spells up in the last month or the last year. You know, because of…”

Because of the war, but now Sirius was clutching at straws. Likely he didn’t want to admit it was his fault they were up a tree, in the forest, because he’d forgotten the Lestranges had spells around their property to detect intruders, and that their property extended to the forest.

Almost every fairytale had a forest in it. Almost every forest had something sinister lurking within.

“That would make sense,” Remus said. Sirius might have been at fault but that didn’t mean Remus wouldn’t humour him. “We’ve stepped up our efforts. They know we’re getting stronger.”

“Right,” Sirius said. “Right.”

He was shivering. This was, objectively, the worst sort of job. Late night as the weather was turning, late September. Outside a manor in the heartland of rural wealth, unplottable, only overturned because there were blood traitors on their side. Sirius and his good memory. They were spies; there were spies on both sides. Sirius was the best sort of spy, the kind any spymaster would fawn over, because he didn’t need to be a double agent. He was a sleeper. He had spent his childhood planted in the rotten soil and when they pulled him out he was full of information and idealism.

Remus was the other kind of spy. Brought up sheltered from it all, and dropped back into it. The kind of spy you want as far away from you as possible. So he liked this sort of job. Purebloods, fox hunts. Being stuck up a tree beat Greyback’s gang any day. Any night.

The scouting party were right below them now. Impossible to say who they were; black hoods and masks to hide their face, anonymous white fingers around wands that could’ve been any twig off the forest floor. Every now and then one of the dogs will bark and the party will pause. They’ll sniff around a tree and then move onto another. None of them have thought to look up yet.

“How much longer?”

“Shh.” Remus still did not look at Sirius. “Close your eyes. Imagine you’re anywhere else but here.”

“Hogwarts,” Sirius said, the single word like a breath of relief escaping him to fog up the night air. “Autumn was the best season to be at Hogwarts. Castle was cold but not too chilly yet. Sausage casserole every night. Too early in the year for anyone to bother much if you went skulking around.”

“You only remember it so romantic because it was early in the year. Home was a fresh memory. You’d rather be anywhere else after summer. The year hadn’t had time to go to shit yet, in autumn.”

“I thought the point of imagining I was somewhere better was to forget all that,” Sirius said. He nudged Remus; inadvisable, but neither of them fell. “Or am I playing this game wrong?”

“I was talking about myself.”

“You were talking about both of us.”

Remus sighed. “Yeah. I was.”

“Not a hell of a lot for you to escape from, though, was there,” Sirius said. “Parents who loved you, a roof over your head—”

“Sirius,” Remus snapped. “We are not doing this.”

That was a lie, because they were always doing this. Sirius and his horrid family, Remus and his affliction. Who had it worse? Who fucking cared?

“I’m the asset,” Sirius said. “Yes, alright, it’s shit that I have to come back here and think about this. But at the end of the day it means I’m valued. It means I get to keep my job. Live to fight another day. I don’t mind if I get dangled on a fishhook if I do well enough that they let me do it again.”

“You’re mental,” Remus said.

“You’re the one who volunteered to come with me.”

The party below were moving away from their tree, deeper into the dark. The light from their wands cast shadows across the ground which seemed to part the trees, clear their way. Any good fugitive knew to run in the opposite direction to the light.

Almost every direction you went in a forest, there was sure to be something sinister lurking.

“A werewolf and a madman,” Remus said. “They ought to be scared of us.”

“Two madmen,” Sirius said. “It’s not a full moon yet.” He tugged at Remus’ arm. “But I like that you’re mad. Keeps it lively. Keeps me sane.”

Remus looked at Sirius. Sirius was looking down.

“Want to run for it?”

“I don’t see what other choice we have,” Remus said. “Either we go down together, or we go down together.”

“I’ll take those odds,” Sirius said. He took Remus’ hand, too. “If we make it back alive, let’s—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

Sirius didn’t. No time for flirting. You had to put your heart to one side to climb down a tree, in a forest, under the mist-muddled moonlight. To make it to the ground safely and then to run, as fast as you could, in the other direction to the lights. To trust that you wouldn’t trip. To make it out of range of spells and Apparate back to headquarters. To learn; to survive. That was fine. That was their job.

“I love this kind of job,” Remus admitted. “Even if I’m more valuable elsewhere.”

“We go where we’re needed,” Sirius said. “And if I say I need a second next time I scope this place out…”

“Well, I’ve already been.”

“Exactly.” Sirius grinned. “I love this kind of job too."  



End file.
